


All They Could do was Watch

by Falke



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Ghost Stories, Halloween, concept characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-23 19:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12515192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falke/pseuds/Falke
Summary: At the end of Grass Route, under the viaduct, the forest is busy reclaiming old Ballenger Foundry.But a building with such a bloody history isn't going quietly.Nick and Judy tell a ghost story for their friends the arctic fox masseuses.





	1. Chapter 1

It finally felt like fall outside.

Callie had just a light jacket on, and that was still almost more than she needed, with the exercise of carrying bags home from the grocery store. They were in that weird time of year when it was comfortably warm during the day, and so cold that it caught them by surprise at night, so Callie had compromised. The sun could finish sliding down and the leaves could keep chattering in the gutters, and she would still be plenty warm.

She just wished it would hurry up now.

"Callie, wait up!" Sam scampered along behind her as they crossed the old viaduct bridge. "I didn't know it was a race."

"I like feeling the breeze," Callie said. "It smells good. You can tell it's going to get cold when it gets dark now."

"I guess." Sam's tail flicked. She was still dressed for summer, technically, in shorts and a sleeveless shirt. "That's why you brought the jacket?"

"Well, that and it looks good."

Sam was probably right that she didn't need it yet, but Callie wouldn't have traded places with her. It wasn't right, to not want a jacket this late in the year. It was as much a part of fall as thicker fur.

"What were you gawking at back there?"

"The valley." Sam tried to point with a bag-laden paw down to the wooded spread below them. "We've never gone down there."

Callie had never really looked at it, but then there wasn't much to see. It was old industrial park, busy getting reclaimed by the vines and moss that always sprung up this close to Rainforest.

"It's just a bunch of run-down buildings," she said. "Not much of a change of scenery."

"But we haven't gone for a hike in ages." Sam pouted. "Or even a walk. If you want to get out in the cold maybe we could do that."

"It's going to be late by then," Callie said. "Besides, we have company tonight."

"Where's your sense of adventure? You sound like Jules."

 _"Ouch."_ That made Callie smile. Sam was irrepressible. And she was right: They were stuck in a bit of a rut.

She wanted to blame that on the season, too. They went to work and came home from work, because most of the time it was still too warm to spend much time outside in the sorts of places they were comfortable in. Public pools were a little too public. They hadn't taken the time to learn about the forests to the west.

Tundratown would be refreshing, but it was a whole extra commute, and the only part of town they knew well was close to the old spa. Callie wasn't going to suggest going back there.

So they made do here, even if it meant waiting for the weather to turn. Callie had always preferred to call the neighborhood _West Savanna Central,_ because it sounded better than _East Happytown._ And it was quiet enough, as long as you kept your ears down and your snout to yourself. Their grocery route was a known detour, so it was okay.

"We could go down to the med campus at the university," Sam floated. "It's cold enough that they have the harvest hearth all decked out, remember?"

"We're there every day, though."

"Yeah, for work. Going there to relax is different than just walking by."

"True."

Sam held the front door to their building for her and brightened. "I'll ask Jules about it, then."

They made it up the stairs without dropping anything out of their bags. Callie juggled them to get her key in the door.

Home was plenty warm and smelled amazing, and it wasn't because of the spa candles they tended to borrow. Dinner had been simmering in the crock pot since this morning - mushroom broth with all kinds of vegetables and spices, and now they had barley to add to it, too.

Jules was still cleaning the kitchen. She'd vacuumed and wiped everything down; now she was standing on tiptoe on the footstool and seemed to be organizing their pantry. There was a pile of boxes and jars on the counter.

She pointed her snout at them from across the room as they came in, and relaxed when she saw who it was.

"There you are. Did you get everything?"

"Think so." Callie put her bags down so Jules could pounce on them and turned to lock the door.

"Barley, carrots, potatoes..." Jules sorted through the bag. "Okay. Did you get my eggs?"

"No eggs in the soup!" Sam reminded her as she went by with a double armload of groceries. "It has to be for everyone."

"I'm not talking about the soup," she said, and scowled. "Would Judy even know, though? Once you cook it it might as well be tofu."

"That's mean."

"And that's why I'm not putting any in the soup, don't worry," Jules said. She plucked an egg out of the top carton and poked through the shell with an expert claw. "I left the finishing touches for you anyway. Make it the way you like it; I'm sure they'll love that."

Sam busied herself with the crock pot. When she took the lid off, a cloud of fragrant steam made Callie's mouth water. No, it wouldn't have eggs. But it was going to be delicious all the same.

She helped put everything back in the pantry, and nudged Jules where she was leaning on the counter and watching.

"Thanks for getting the place cleaned up."

Jules licked at her treat. "I left the laundry I knew was yours on the bed."

Callie wandered over. The bed was made up, for once, and Jules had put at least one of the blankets on. They probably weren't going to need it yet, but for now she left it alone and sorted through the pile of clean clothes. Most of it was hers, but the leg warmers were Sam's, and she wasn't quite sure who the shirt with the green buttons belonged to, because they all had one like that.

She put it in the communal drawer and paced around the edge of the apartment on her way back to the kitchen, to check that everything was tidied. Having company on the way for dinner was a good thing, she decided. It got them to sit down and clean up.

Sam was ignoring that Nick and Judy would be here tonight, though, and peppering Jules with her half-formed plan to go somewhere this weekend.

"-But Callie didn't want to. So we figured we could go to the harvest hearth down at the university for drinks."

"Callie's right, getting lost down in the old industrial district sounds like the opposite of fun," Jules said. She rolled her eyes, when Sam stuck her tongue out and dumped a bag of frozen green beans in the pot. "But I like the hearth. We could get tea."

"You're getting ahead of tonight," Callie reminded them. "We cleaned up, the soup will be ready-" she waited for Sam's confirming nod. "Anything else? Do we have drinks?"

"Judy said she was bringing something," Jules said.

"Right." She hoped Nick had passed on their preferences. None of them were big fans of alcohol these days.

"And put the eggs away before she gets here," Sam said. Those preferences went the other way, too.

"Okay, okay. Eggs away." Jules pulled the fridge open. "Go get dressed."

\---

Judy had only been here a couple of times, and never for anything as involved as a sit-down meal. Callie had worried it would be awkward from the start, with her being the only prey species.

But she bounced through the door and up into Sam's welcome hug without missing a beat, and her enthusiasm was making all of them loosen up and crack grins already.

Nick got the door behind her, and he was clearly tired. It wasn't the worst Callie had ever seen him, but he and Judy definitely got different things out of the changing season. He looked fuzzy and comfortable, like he might curl up and sleep at any time.

"Hi, Nick." She took his coat with a knowing look. "Long day?"

"We patrolled on the Sahara side," he said. He had a big thermos in his paws - enough to share. "I'm glad the sun's finally down."

"Oh, no."

"It's not alcoholic." Judy pressed a bottle of her own into Sam's paws. "We have work tomorrow, too, so we thought we'd play it safe."

 _Good old Nick._ Callie caught his wink as she turned to put his coat on the rack.

"Hi, Judy," Jules laughed when it was her turn. "Are you guys hungry?"

"Famished! And it smells amazing."

Sam was already pulling the others ahead to show off her soup. It gave Callie time to hug Nick hello.

"Thanks for the intervention," she murmured.

"I had almost nothing to do with it." He held his free paw away from his chest. "Judy knows a lot about the old days herself now." He lingered, to watch her slide the deadbolts. "You guys doing okay?"

"Never better." She dipped her snout at him again, to make sure he knew she was telling the truth. "We're going a bit stir crazy with the weather, just like you, but that's the worst of it. Promise."

Three arctic foxes could share a mid-scale apartment without things ever getting cramped, and even with company it was just perfectly cozy. They had exactly enough room at the table at the end of the kitchen that served as their dining room - and exactly enough mismatched chairs - to fit five. Callie helped Sam with the salad plates and the crispy bread, and they clustered around for a first course and caught each other up on their lives.

Nick and Judy always had fascinating stories. If they weren't busting up fraud rings they were chasing down street racers, or just helping kits get their kites out of trees. Callie didn't think a trio of massage therapists did the same interesting work - certainly not after they'd left the bathhouses of Tundratown behind. But Nick was genuinely happy to see them happy, and Judy sat back with her glass and the same wide-eyed enthusiasm she got for just about anything that was new to her. The university's physical therapy teaching program seemed to qualify.

When it came time for the main course Judy proclaimed the soup an unmitigated success, which pleased Sam to no end and made Jules laugh.

"Don't give her too much credit. Step two to crock pot soup, after _put everything in the pot,_ is _ignore it for a while._ "

"Maybe I'm just really good at putting things in pots." Sam looked to be considering poking her with her spoon. "I'm sorry the veggies aren't fresh, Judy."

"Don't be, Sam." Judy shook her head. "I want your recipe. This would be perfect for those nights when we're stuck late at work, ask Nick."

The foxes turned their heads as one. Nick flattened his ears.

"It's awful," he said. "Never volunteer to collate traffic reports for all of Otterdam at once."

Jules screwed up her muzzle. "Oh, no."

"The sooner it gets done," Judy reminded him, "The sooner we can go on harvest patrol." She slurped with gusto. "This is saving us time."

"True."

When they'd eaten, Callie and Jules stacked the dinner dishes in the sink and they broke out the one complete deck of cards they could find.

The thermos, as it turned out, was full of sweet cider, a family recipe that Judy had spiced with ginger from her and Nick's garden. It was delicious, and seemed to heat them up all the better now that the night wind was rattling the bay windows. Even Jules, who drank nothing but Earl Grey, looked like she might sample it.

Talk turned to gossip about co-workers and massage clients, to transit repairs that were screwing up commutes, to plans for the holiday.

"We'll be in this part of town tomorrow for rotation, too," Nick said. "Right when it gets cold."

"Oh, yeah," Judy said. She settled deeper in her chair. "We drew Grass route this year."

"Wait a minute," Sam said. She frowned over her cards. "Grass route? The dead end? That's just three blocks from here. You could come say hello."

"Rhinowicz said it was a hotspot last year, and the year before." Judy rubbed her nose. "We got a lot of calls. But I bet we could make some time at the end."

"Yeah, I think we walk past there a couple times a week when we get groceries." Callie tapped her claws against the laminate of her cards. She could see the sidewalks they'd taken that evening in her mind's eye. "You're talking about the old road under the viaduct?"

"That's the place." Nick said. He had a solemn look for his partner. "They used to make us check it out when we ran our midnight shifts during orientation. Something about breaking in the rookies."

"Wait, why?" Sam was catching on, too. Callie caught the excited flick to her ears. She remembered the place, too. "It's not- dangerous, is it?"

"Now? No, not these days," Judy said.

Nick was nodding slowly. "At the end of Grass Route, there's a factory."

"It's an old steel mill that got shut down after a bad accident," Judy said. "Decades ago, at least."

All this time, they never would have guessed that was why the place was shuttered. Callie couldn't help but feel a trickle of unease.

Their cards were all but forgotten for the moment. Sam was paying rapt attention now, too, and even Jules had put her mug down so she could listen up. She tilted her head. "Did mammals die?"

"Yes." Judy grimaced. "There was a problem with the big conveyor."

"Remember, this was years ago. But they say the big chains caught on one of the buckets they keep the molten metal in and dragged it all the way down the line, right over the mammals working there," Nick said. He scratched under his shirtcollar. "And then it fell through into the basement for good measure."

"There were some mice working in the rafters, but-" Judy swallowed. "They were so small that they couldn't get to the nearest emergency stop in time. All they could do was watch."

Nick looked to Judy for confirmation. "If you believe the stories, that's the reason all the heavy machinery the city runs has so many cutoff switches now: So if a trolley gets loose, or if one of the climate wall airlocks breaks, anyone can find a button to stop it, no matter how small they are."

Sam curled her tail around her legs, where she'd drawn them up on the chair. "How do you know all this?"

"They tell you about it at the Academy, so you learn to take safety requirements seriously," Judy said. "And ZPD gets sent down there a lot, especially at Harvest. It's not just a practical joke."

"Clawhauser reckons the place is haunted," Nick said.

"He does _not._ "

"He does too!" Nick sat forward to put his cards down and stacked his arms on either side of his steaming mug. "He said so himself. And he might be onto something. Every call we've ever chased through there has come up empty. Every single one."

"But they keep coming in," Judy said. "So ZPD had the surveillance department stake it out one night a few years ago, just to be sure. They set up cameras and everything." She frowned, as if remembering something. "But the tapes were blank."

"Of course, the stake team still swore up and down they heard stuff the wind shouldn't be able to do." Nick eyed Sam's hanging on to every word. "And every vagrant and lost tourist we pull out of there still talks about being watched from up high. Like someone wants them to stay away."

Next to her, Callie saw Jules' wary expression go wry instead as she rolled her eyes.

Nick lowered his muzzle closer to the table. He was fighting a smile of his own. "Did I oversell it?"

"Maybe a little," Callie said, right as Jules shook her head yes and Sam shook her head no. "That's a good ghost story, though. Much more inventive than a haunted jail or something."

"You did not," Sam said. You wouldn't just make that up."

"And I didn't," Nick said. "I don't know if you want to take the ramblings of some of the mammals we help out at face value, but I'm just telling you what they told us." His smile was showing now, but Callie saw how he had his tail wrapped close, too. "Every word of that is true."


	2. Chapter 2

They walked out to the trolley stop together, so they could see Nick and Judy off when they boarded the last car of the night. Now Callie was especially grateful for her jacket, and it looked like Sam was wishing she had one, too. She meandered restlessly around in front of her and Jules, pointing out just about every decorated stoop and porch they passed.

"I wish we could still get away with trick-or-treating. We don't get to see any of this at the apartment." Her paw shot out. "Look at that one!"

Three carved pumpkins formed a sort of totem pole. The top one showed a ghost with mouse ears.

"Callie, can we get a pumpkin?"

"It's a few days early, isn't it?" Callie said. "And we have a hallway, not a porch."

"Put it on the table, then. In the window."

"I don't think the lease allows for an open flame in the apartment." Jules spread her paws when Sam scowled at her. "And who's going to carry it home from the store when their paws are full of groceries? You?"

"Spoilsport."

Judy looked crestfallen. "Don't tell me you get your jack-o-lanterns from the store," she said.

"Aw, Carrots." Nick nudged her when the foxes looked down at her. "Don't mind this farmer, you three. She thinks the only worthy pumpkins are the ones you grow in your own patch out back."

"They are! They're bigger, and they're more orange." She beamed up at Callie. "You're more than welcome to come out to the farm for the weekend and pick one out. There's plenty of beds, too, and food and everything. You could stay the night and have some fun."

"Oh, yeah. And the kits would love your triple act," Nick added. He grinned. "You could dress up like ghosts and chase everyone through the corn maze."

This weekend was no good, though. They didn't get any time off for Harvest this year. Callie had to raise a paw and cut a freshly excited Sam off before she could get any more steam - and before she could think too hard about how nice it sounded, too.

"I don't think we can swing that. Sorry, Sam. Not this time. We have appointments late on Friday, and classes first thing on Monday."

Sam almost whined. "A _corn maze,_ Callie."

"I'm sorry! We're busy."

If it wasn't for the chill wind Callie might not have guessed that it was harvest time. The only concession at the tram station was a poster locked in the bulletin case behind the scuffed glass, advertising a couple of seasonal gatherings farther downtown. Callie made note of the one that was closest to the medical campus. They really ought to make a detour, she thought, for the special occasion.

When they'd finished their goodbye hugs and Nick and Judy's trolley left, they were alone again. They started back, sticking close together to keep the chill wind at bay and because it was how they always moved around a sometimes-unfamiliar city. The streets were dark, except for their occasional pumpkins or candles. Jules had her nose in the breeze. Callie caught Sam's shiver.

"You should have brought a jacket," Jules told her. She reached out to take her friend's paw. "Your coat's not in yet after all."

"Now it _does_ feel like Harvest out here." Sam eased to her favorite position between them, and it seemed that her reaction hadn't been one of cold, but of giddy anticipation. "I bet it's even colder out in the country, too."

"Maybe we can go later," Callie said. She didn't want them all to end up glum about having to skip on a visit to Judy's farm. "We could ask Nick about next weekend. Maybe they'd be willing to show us around."

Sam was watching the jack-o-lantern sentries they passed. "I still say we should get a pumpkin to carve," she said. "If we can't have a candle we could find a little fake one, or a flashlight or something."

"As long as we can still carry it back," Callie said. "It's going to mean another trip."

"I don't mind going tomorrow." Sam stopped and ducked her head against a particularly strong gust of wind. It had come the wrong way down the street, right into their faces, hard enough to push their ears back and make the struts of the viaduct creak and clank around them.

And now Sam didn't keep up. Jules got pulled to a stop, and so Callie did, too. She looked back to see Sam staring down off the bridge, her eyes wide and shining in the dark.

"It's right here."

"What is?"

"Look!" Sam tugged on Jules's paw and pointed. "That's the building Nick and Judy were talking about. The steel mill."

The place did look more foreboding in the dark, or maybe it was because Callie was taking a hard look at it for the first time. It was so far back in the shrubs and trees that she couldn't be sure just how large it actually was. The logo on the side of the building's boarded-up tower was ancient, but the stylized _B.F._ still shone white in the moonlight.

"We walk by here every time we get groceries," Jules said.

"Yeah, but now we know what it is. What really happened." Sam had wrapped her other arm around the nearest beam of the bridge so she could press right up against the low fence. She shivered again. "Who do you think died? Big mammals, or small ones?"

Jules prodded her. "You're so morbid. You don't seriously believe the stories, do you?"

"Nick and Judy said they were all true. And it is almost Harvest."

"They said ZPD arrests the mammals who say those things," Callie pointed out. She looked away from the building and the rest of the forest down there seemed to snap back into focus. The old road that led right under the bridge was so overgrown it was closer to a hiking trail, now. The scraggly trees lining it had dropped most of their leaves at this point. Their branches looked like claws.

And now the wind was rushing again, against their backs and down the path below them. They heard the rustle of bare branches - and a quiet groan from somewhere deeper in the forest as something big settled in the breeze. Now Jules shivered, too.

"We should get back," Callie said. "Come on, it's getting late."

\---

In her half-asleep state, Callie only faintly registered one of her bedmates moving against her. When they climbed out from under the covers and crawled off the mattress, the cold space they left was much more noticeable. Callie pulled a still-sleeping Jules closer to nestle against her bare fur, and closed her eyes. Sam would be back from the bathroom soon enough.

But five minutes later, the vague sense of missing someone ticked at her again. Callie raised her head to look around.

The electric fireplace was playing its cheery fake glow from the corner. The kitchen on the other side of the room was it usual shadowy self.

But Sam wasn't in the bathroom. The door was open and the light was off. Instead, she was standing by the window in her giant sleep shirt, staring through the blinds she had spun open.

"Sam?"

Her ears flicked back, but she didn't turn. "Sorry, Callie."

This wasn't like her. Sam didn't leave their warm snuggle each night unless she had to, and she certainly didn't linger out in the dark. Callie disengaged herself so Jules would stay tucked in and slipped out of bed. She came up behind Sam and put her arms and her tail around her from behind.

"What is it?"

"I had a dream about the factory," Sam whispered. She tipped back into the hug. "I guess I can't stop thinking about it."

"Oh." Callie tightened up. "You know we can't see it from here."

"We can see part of the valley," Sam said. She turned. "I wanted to be sure."

She'd hung onto every word of Nick's ghost story. Callie supposed she should have seen this coming. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I kind of want to go see." Sam quirked a little smile. "To know whether it's true or not. They shut down the factory, right? So it's been rusting away down there for years."

"And that makes it _more_ attractive?"

They turned. Jules was propping herself up on her elbows. Her fur was all mussed from her pillow.

Callie grimaced in apology. They never could stay asleep on their own for long.

"Jules." Sam wriggled free of Callie's hug and padded back onto the bed on paws and knees to get closer - and promptly tripped on the hem of her shirt. "I can't just sit here after a ghost story like that."

"We were doing a pretty good job a minute ago..."

What time _was_ it? Callie didn't even have clothes, much less a watch. The night display on her phone read 3AM. Poor Jules.

"You're not even a little curious?"

Jules shook her head and rubbed her snout with both paws.

"Oh, okay, okay." Sam turned and winked at Callie. "You're afraid of ghosts. I get it."

"Am not. And I'll prove it. Ghosts don't even exist. How can I be afraid of something that doesn't exist?" Jules scowled. "I am much more afraid of a rusty factory. There's probably glass everywhere, too, or mammals might be trying to live there. Why else would they send ZPD down every Harvest?"

"But that's the point," Sam said. "If anything goes wrong, we can just find them." She bounced in place. "I bet Nick and Judy would like company, too. It's probably dark and cold, and Judy doesn't get a nice winter coat. What if we took them some surprise cider?"

Jules made an exasperated little _uh_ noise and flopped back on her pillow. "Callie, help."

Callie reached up to close the blinds and buy herself some time. She couldn't deny her own curiosity. It had been there under the unease when they'd crossed the bridge earlier that night, and it was there despite the caution she knew Jules was most concerned with keeping. There was no such thing as ghosts, she was almost certain, but she was as ready as Sam was to indulge in the spirit of the season.

Even if it was scary. Especially if if was scary; That was the whole point. There was no better way to break up the monotony of their daily work. And they'd already had to nix Sam's jack-o-lantern idea. Maybe they could at least visit with their friends some more.

But they also didn't have to decide this now. They should have all been asleep. And Callie knew if she made some sort of snap call she was going to disappoint someone. If Sam heard her shoot it down, she wasn't going to sleep for the rest of the night. But if Callie sided with her instead, Jules was going to mope.

"We'll have to ask Nick whether it's a good idea," she said, and slipped back into bed. "Tomorrow. They might be too busy to even talk."

Sam's ears wilted. "But I want it to be a surprise."

"We won't say anything about bringing them drinks," Callie said. "But Jules has a point, we don't want to get into some kind of trouble. Can we compromise?" Callie gave a plaintive Sam her best reasonable smile. "At least until it's actually time to wake up?"

"Okay, okay." Sam settled down and snuggled up under Jules' chin again, who seemed more than happy to reciprocate if it meant they could go back to sleep.

Callie reached down to touch Jules' ear in apology. Jules managed a patient grin, now that Sam wasn't going to catch her dropping the overprotective act, and leaned forward to plant a kiss on Sam's brow.

Callie kept one eye open a little longer, on the gentle orange glow of their fireplace.

They were both right, as usual. And as usual, it would be up to her to try to find some middle ground that made them all happy. Safety was most important, there was no getting around that. But she wanted to hope that if they were careful about it, if they stuck together the way they knew was best, they could go make some memories this Harvest after all.


	3. Chapter 3

"If we get arrested, I'm blaming you," Jules muttered.

"And if we see a ghost, I get to say I told you so," Sam whispered back. She had led the way down the steep embankment at the side of the road, and now she was pushing fronds and branches aside so they could get to the old trail. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were scared that we will."

"The difference is I listen to that voice in my head." Jules shook out her fur when they made it into the open, but she kept her voice quiet, too. The wooded passage cut out most of the moonlight. From here, they couldn't even see if it was clear all the way to the mill.

And Callie, bringing up the rear, couldn't see the road they'd left behind, either. The spars of the viaduct were almost invisible in the gloom, even with her sensitive night vision. The moon was ducking in and out of cloud cover.

Sam pressed on as soon as she'd gotten her bearings. Jules gave Callie a worried glance and hurried to keep up.

"She's here with us," Callie whispered, so Sam wouldn't overhear where she'd pulled up her hood. She nudged her friend. "And we told her we have to be careful. As long as we stick together we'll be okay."

"I know," Jules said. But she didn't sound like she meant it. "It's just Nick didn't answer his phone, and I don't know if he got my texts." She hefted the thermos she was carrying. "What if we brought this along for nothing?"

"Do you want me to carry it?"

"No, it's okay." It seemed to give Jules a reason for being down here, or at least an excuse beyond looking out for Sam.

The wind was rustling its way through the remaining leaves as they went, loud enough to drown out three sets of careful paws on the limestone path. It wasn't until they got closer that the new noise rolled out of the forest.

The old mill seemed to almost breathe. The wind made old metal siding creak, and whistled through windows that must have been boarded up decades ago. The tower sagged at a decrepit angle above them, taller and taller as they came out of the trees together. Once again, Callie got the eerie impression that the building dragged at her attention. The rest of the world seemed to drop off.

"Whoa," Sam breathed from between them, where she'd finally stopped. They stood close in the shadows, near enough that Callie almost jumped when Jules' tail brushed her ankles. "Do you think we can see inside?"

"Let's not," Jules said. Her ears were back, too, and she twitched when Sam pushed her hood back and raised an eyebrow. "It's probably rickety."

_"Scaredy fox."_

"What, do you really want to go in there?" Jules stuck out a paw, but only briefly. Something inside the mill had rumbled in the wind, as if in agreement.

It made all of them shrink back, Sam included. But Callie could see curiosity overpowering her fear again. When she worked up the courage to keep pushing forward, Callie went with her, and Jules had little choice but to follow.

The loading dock stretched out around the outside of the building, past a yawning opening that was too dark to see in. Grass was overgrowing the dark gaps at its edges, and the bare bulbs hanging overhead were shattered in their sockets and wouldn't have worked even if there had been power. Callie kept an eye out for glass underfoot, as they crept past stacks of crates and empty wooden spools.

"They abandoned the whole place in a hurry," Sam whispered. "Just like Nick and Judy said."

It must have been different back then. Nowadays if there was funny business at a factory, ZPD and investigators from the city shut it down and cleaned it up. There had been a seafood plant near where they used to work, Callie remembered, that had cleared completely out when the owner was busted for an illegal fish farm. It had been redeveloped as housing.

Here, it was still obvious the place had worked steel. And if it had been in better shape, it probably could have started up again tomorrow.

Callie followed the others as they crept under the twisted remnants of the dock's roof. Time or a storm or a giant paw had ripped a hole through one edge. The loose tin slats squeaked in the breeze and pulled at her ears.

Jules was watching the boards of the nearest window. Her tail was going steadily back and forth now. She tried again. "We're supposed to be down here to meet Nick and Judy."

_"Shh,"_ Sam said. "They have to come this way, too, right? And-"

Sam stopped and pointed her muzzle and ears up and behind them through the hole in the awning, toward something on the roof Callie couldn't see. She turned to look anyway - and Jules turned so quickly her tail swished.

_"What?"_

"I don't know." Sam said. "You felt that, right?"

"I didn't feel anything."

Callie hadn't, either. "What was it?"

"Like someone was watching," Sam said. Her tail had fluffed out. She edged back closer to Jules. "Just for a second."

_"Sam..."_

The unease crawled in Callie's gut. Jules didn't do practical jokes when she was jumpy. And Sam appeared genuinely surprised.

" _I felt it!_ Like I always know when you're watching me."

"If you're putting me on-" Jules menaced her with the thermos. "You're sleeping on your own."

"You wouldn't dare," Sam said. She was rubbing her upper arms, hugging herself to keep warm. "Besides, Callie has to vote on that, too."

She turned again at the sound of wind in the trees behind her, further down the dock, and once again her sense was more of curiosity than nerves. Even... whatever she'd felt wasn't enough to scare Sam off.

Callie lingered long enough to give Jules a paw. "I didn't feel anything, either. There's no one up there. Just wind."

"I know." Jules shook her head, but her ears were still tracking the gap in the roof. She lowered her voice again. "Nobody's going to be looking for us around here, Callie. We're not supposed to be this close."

Callie nodded. It was probably time to pull Sam back a bit.

They padded after Sam, around the corner, and stopped short. Here a truly overgrown snarl threatened to swallow the building whole. The big main doors were laced with creeping vines and fronds, and in front of that a tree had fallen straight through the wall; Now moss grew around the trunk and the inky blackness of the interior where moonlight didn't reach.

And when they finally got close enough to see the splintered ruins of the dock, under the trunk-

Callie felt her fur stand on end. Okay, it was definitely time.

They were bones, bleached white and unmistakable. She saw ribs, sagging against the fallen guardrails, and a spine, and the frozen twist of claws. Jules whined out something involuntary and backed up.

It wasn't... _remains_. At least, Callie thought when she felt brave enough to venture a more careful look, not of something sentient. The skull was separated and half crushed, but it clearly wasn't a mammal.

"Some kind of bird," she said.

"That helps so much," Jules muttered.

Callie felt like agreeing, but the relief had nowhere to go. Her heart was still hammering. They'd stumbled on someone's macabre lunch, was all, and it beat the alternative, but that meant if anyone was home they were likely to be some squatter. And that was more of a problem than any ghost. Transients down here could actually be dangerous.

"Sam," she said, and backed away. "We should go wait somewhere else."

Jules was still staring at the skeleton, and she was alone on the dock with Callie. But she looked away when Callie spoke again.

"Sam?"

Nothing.

Jules turned again, all the way around, like she might miss something if she didn't give it her full attention. Her ears flattened and her tail stopped bristling long enough to wrap around her legs. "Sam, this isn't funny."

There was nowhere further ahead to go, past the enormous bulk of the treetrunk. Sam hadn't had time to retrace their steps back around the corner. But she couldn't have just sunk into the ground, either.

These were facts and Callie knew them, but her vague discomfort had already started to sour to serious fear. Wandering the forest at midnight, fine. Even exploring the edges of an abandoned factory, she'd gone along with. But they weren't supposed to get separated. They didn't do _separated_.

_"Sam?"_

"Back to the corner," Callie said. She reached out a paw for Jules' arm, and it seemed to snap her out of it. "We'll find out where she went."

"I told her this was a bad idea." The wind flared up again and Jules cringed away from the fresh creaking and groaning from the building looming above them. "We _told her_ we had to be careful. She never listens."

"Jules, she can't have gone far."

But the other side of the dock was just as deserted. Callie would have loved to see Nick and Judy arriving down the path, with their reassuring familiarity and their high-power flashlights, but Callie and Jules were still alone out here. The forest was as dark and as empty as ever.

She pushed down on the fear. She couldn't afford it now. One of them had to keep a level head. Sam would already be scared and alone, and Jules was headed that way, too, even if she didn't want to show it.

_"Sam!"_

_"Here!"_ Her voice was faint, and it had come from a long way behind them. Callie chilled, and she knew despite the brave front she was trying to put on for Jules she was sure she looked just as stricken. Was Sam inside the mill? "Jules, where did you go? I thought you were right behind me!"

"Sam, where are you?"

"I went in the hole, by the corner. It's so dark in here. I can't see where anymore."

The sound of her voice was fading, but the nervous undertone was as clear as a bell to them. They knew her too well; they knew what she sounded like when her curiosity got her in over her head. Jules turned and hurried back toward the bones on the deck. They didn't seem to scare her anymore. Sam was in trouble again, and that was more important.

Jules climbed onto the big trunk and peered into the dark. "Sam, talk to me."

"Okay, um. It's pitch-black, and dusty-" there was a crash. _"Whoa!"_

_"Sam!"_

"I'm okay! And there's crates."

Jules couldn't see inside, and she was clearly scared to go any further into the blackness. Her claws scratched on the bark. Callie could hear her panting for breath as she ducked around the edges of the hole, searching for a way down.

And when Sam yelped again, she nearly did, too.

"Was that you?" Sam called.

"Sam, we're still outside." Jules slid off the trunk. "We can't get to you."

"I see light ahead, through the cracks."

"That's the main doors. Go that way. We're coming."

Jules reached out and put all her weight against one of them. They were a good ten feet tall, chained shut and maybe rusted in place, but one of them still groaned and swung far enough open that she could wriggle halfway inside. Callie followed, even with her heart in her throat. There was no way she was going to leave all of them alone in different places right now.

The cavernous space was even harder to see in than the forest outside. As Callie's eyes adjusted she could just barely make out the long, wide conveyor dominating the center line, and it was falling apart. Discarded tools and metal stock still leaned against it in places, and a huge mass of chains hung from catwalks and cranes directly above them. The far end was just a hole through the floor, swallowed in the blackness.

And all of it was covered in a thick layer of dust. Their arrival had kicked it up and made it even harder to see or breathe. Jules was coughing.

Callie peered into the darkness where the moonlight didn't reach, alert for any flash of white fox fur. "Sam, we're here. How did you get in?"

Now her voice echoed from the other side of the nearest crates.

"The tree was like a ramp." She seemed to be moving. "Except for the end. That's when I fell by the boxes."

Callie pulled out her phone and tapped for the flashlight. The sudden glare bouncing off all the haze and looming metal made her squint. It looked washed-out and strange, like it was all frozen in the midst of action. But at least they could see where they were going.

Sam looked like a ghost herself, when she appeared by the gearing at the end of the conveyor. Her eyes were huge in the gloom and her fur was smudged almost gray with dust from where she'd rubbed against things. They rushed for her, kicking up more dust the whole way.

"Sam, are you hurt?"

"I'm okay."

"Why did you leave us?" Jules demanded. "You didn't hear us calling?"

"No, I wanted to see where the-"

Sam had gone stock-still, with her ears at attention instead of flat against her head.

Then Jules seized Callie's arm with claws so sharp they hurt, and now Callie heard it, too. Soft pattering echoed from the darkness above them, like little feet running along bare metal, and it made her hackles stand up stiff. She swung her phone up and bathed the ceiling in the weird, colorless light.

_"Who's there?"_ Sam called. Her voice wavered and seemed to get swallowed by the dark at the edges of the flashlight beam. "Who are you?"

"Sam, I can't see anything," Jules moaned.

"There's _not_ anything." Callie didn't know how to reconcile that. There was nothing up there that could make that noise. There was nothing there that should make her feel with a certainty in her bones that someone was looking down at them. It was just empty catwalks.

Catwalks, where the tiny mice could only stand and watch...

"We shouldn't be in here," she said, and hoped the fear didn't carry in her voice. "Come on. Out the doors."

They squeezed back through and got some distance. Callie watched behind her as they hurried, to make sure Sam especially was all right. Jules was still hanging off of her, so she couldn't be sure, but her dirtied appearance seemed to be the worst of it.

"I told you something like this would happen," Jules said. "Sam-"

"I just wanted to see if the stories were true."

"Yeah, well, either they are, or someone's playing a really cruel joke." Jules shook her head. "Mammals _died_ down here, Sam."

"That was so long ago."

"That doesn't make this stupid adventure any less dangerous." Jules had her hackles up. "You knew there was something off about this place, and you went in anyway."

Even when she was getting chewed out, Sam's curiosity just refused to stay buried. Instead of being abashed, now she looked suddenly hopeful. "So you did feel it."

Jules groaned out her frustration. "It's not about that. I'm not scared of ghosts. I'm scared about you breaking into old buildings where you could get hurt. Where we could all get hurt. Because where you go, we end up following. You never think of that."

"I do, too."

"Not when it _matters_ , Sam-"

A deep series of clanks and thuds interrupted the brewing argument. They all whirled.

And then the entire mill seemed to shiver with the groan of stressed metal. In the splinter of moonlight their passage had let through the main doors, Callie saw the chains and empty crucible hooks pulled into sudden motion. Sam screamed, and Jules, and she thought she might have, too.

The conveyor was rattling. A pall of steam and smoke poured from the warped boards that covered the ground-floor windows, where the boilers below ran everything. Callie swore even the moonlight above them had gone red and orange, like molten metal.

And the _dragging_.

They could hear the enormous chains ringing their way down the line. If Callie and the others had been any closer, she was absolutely convinced they would have been caught up and pulled all the way to the pit in the floor, the same way the last mammals in the doomed factory had died.

"Jules! Sam, _run!_ "

Callie had to go toward the grinding noise to get to them, but not even terror at that awful fate could override the drive in her to make them safe, to get them out first. She caught up their paws and pulled them away. They ran for their lives, over the felled tree, past the bleached bones and the shattered loading docks, back down the path and into the forest.

And still Callie kept herself between them and the mill, because she _knew_ what was coming for them if they slowed. She could still hear it, dragging and screeching and only getting louder. She didn't dare turn to look.

Sam and Jules screamed again anyway, when they crashed through the undergrowth and right into the dark shape that stood on the path ahead of them. For a ghost, it was awfully solid. And for an instant Callie knew that made it even worse.

And then the flashlight clicked on.

"Easy there, ladies." Whatever deep voice came from behind the bright spot wasn't familiar. "You'll hurt yourselves running at that speed."

For a ghost, his uniform was also awfully blue, and covered in familiar golden tags. As he tilted the light away from their faces they could see he was an awfully lifelike lion. His staff tag read _Del Gato_. There was a wolf next to him, pointing his muzzle and his own light at where they'd come careening out of the trees.

Callie had many reasons to be grateful to ZPD these days, but this might have taken the cake. They were safe.

Sam clutched at Jules there in the dirt when he let them go and found her voice. _"Did you hear it?"_

"Hear what?" the wolf asked.

"The chains! The noise from the factory!"

"We barely got away," Jules panted.

But even now the near brush with industrial death was fading in Callie's ears, and all that intruded was the night wind.

The two officers appeared to be listening hard themselves, for what it was worth.

"The only factory back there is out of commission," his companion said eventually. His tag read Wolford. "Right? And it's been shut down for decades now."

"And all we heard just now was you three running this way." The lion Del Gato frowned down at Callie, but it was only for a moment before he chuckled. "Oh, right. I take it you've been listening to Officer _Ghost Stories_ Wilde. Is that why you're down here?"

"And Judy _Ghost Stories_ Hopps," Sam added. She was getting to unsteady paws. "Do you know them?"

"Yeah, we do." He crouched down to be on their level. "They were supposed to be here, but they got stuck untangling yet another traffic accident over in Otterdam. We're covering for them until they free up."

"We told them not to take that paperwork," his companion muttered. He seemed to find it funny. "And usually they're the ones who get up to this sort of thing."

"Well then you know the mill really is haunted." Sam shivered.

"Haunted, huh?"

Del Gato gave his partner a look. "We'll check it out, don't worry." He pointed to the thermos Jules still had a death grip on. "You ladies haven't been drinking tonight, have you?"

Callie took the lead again. The others had been through enough. "No, officers."

The old cylinder was now looking even more battered when Jules held it up in the flashlight beam. "It's cider."

"Judy's-" Sam corrected herself. "Officer Hopps' family recipe. We wanted to bring it down and surprise them."

Wolford chuckled. "Sorry you ran into us instead."

"I'd say you could try again later, but this probably isn't the best night to go wandering around down in the old industrial quarter." Del Gato looked apologetic. "We'll tell them you stopped by, though."

Sam looked crestfallen, even after their ordeal. But Callie knew their new friend was right: they should cut their losses and count themselves lucky. It wasn't like they would be disappointing Nick or Judy too much, if they didn't know it was coming. "Thank you, Officer Del Gato."

"We'll get you back out to the roads, at least. Do you have someplace you can stay tonight?"

She couldn't really blame him for his assumption that they might have been drifting through here. They were all disheveled and breathing hard; Sam looked even worse with all the dust in her fur. Jules was fussing over her.

Callie thought about going back to their apartment. They could clean up and have a warm drink themselves, and begin what was sure to be a long night of processing what they'd seen. But the idea didn't exactly appeal to her. Harvest was slipping away, and she knew they'd all eventually regret it if they spent it cooped up at home, near brush with ghosts or no.

So maybe they could do something a little better. It would definitely be safer than this, too.

"We do."


	4. Chapter 4

Jules hadn't objected, when Callie led them toward downtown and the medical campus. She was more worried about Sam, and she seemed to trust that Callie wouldn't lead them on as crazy an adventure.

And Sam was uncharacteristically quiet even when they arrived. Callie knew she was bursting to talk about what they'd seen, but for now she was following Jules' lead.

The campus plaza was a big circle of concrete steps and tiered lawns. This time of year the grass was dead and brown, but that gave the Harvest decorators an excuse to go all out with their theming. Now there were bales of hay in all different sizes stacked to make benches, and even live pumpkins scattered around. A gas-fed hearth was crackling in the center, and the cafe on the corner never closed. A badger with a house apron had rolled out a drinks cart to serve up hot chocolate and coffee.

They found a spot near the center of the plaza, against a couple of bales for large-scale mammals that were close enough to the fire to feel the warmth coming off of it.

And there were lots and lots of eyes here. Nocturnal mammals went about their business even in the dead of night, and that was comforting. If there really was such a thing as the ghosts of those who died in a mill accident, Callie thought, they wouldn't show up here. Here was for lining up for hot drinks, or for hugging friends goodbye while you waited for the late-night train to Sahara. There were even costumed kits out and about, munching on caramel apples and warming their paws by the fire.

She watched her friends anyway to make sure they were all right, and helped Jules clean the last of the dust off Sam's clothes. She'd pulled a pawbrush from somewhere, and bade Sam hold onto her thermos while she saw to her tail.

"Better?"

"I'm sorry, Jules," Sam finally said in a rush. She drew her paws up between them. "And you, too, Callie. That was more exciting than I wanted it to be."

"You think?" Jules was channeling her concern into her vigorous brushing.

" _You_ should say you told me so," Sam said. "Because you did. I didn't listen when you said we had to be careful. Again."

Jules seemed to be thinking about it. But she eventually sighed instead. "It's just - if you ever feel the need go explore an old mill again, can we at least not do it in the dead of night? It's easier to stay together that way."

"Yes," Sam said in a small voice. She frowned. "Can ghosts show up when it's not midnight during Harvest?"

Jules shivered and hugged Sam's tail closer. "The point is we won't have to find out."

That was quite the change of tone from _ghosts don't exist._ And Callie decided not to say anything, because she was just as wary of old mills as they were now. She couldn't be sure that it wasn't some shared hallucination, or someone's elaborate prank, but the _how_ hardly mattered. They knew what they'd seen and heard, even if they couldn't explain it. And it was probably going to be a long few nights talking about it, and waking up to help when it wouldn't leave them alone.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you, too, Sam." With her work mostly done, Jules was just hanging on for the sake of it. "I know you didn't mean for things to go bad."

Sam just nodded and pushed herself closer.

The mammals around them were having a normal holiday, at least. They watched two mindful chaperones lead a pawful of kits in a line across the plaza. Callie smiled - the tiny rabbit bouncing along in the rear had holes cut in her ghost bedsheet for her ears.

"Why couldn't we have run into something like that?" Jules asked.

"I wish we could have seen Nick and Judy before they left." Sam was watching, too. It was making her ears perk up, at least. "Do you think they do trick-or-treating for the kits when they go back to the farm?"

"I hope so. Everybody knows that tradition," Callie said. She unscrewed the thermos lid and let a cloud of fragrant steam escape. If they weren't going to be able to meet with the others, she figured they could keep it from going to waste themselves.

She pressed the first cup into a solemn Jules' paws. "Think you can possibly stomach something that isn't Earl Grey?"

"I'll make an exception tonight." Jules finally cracked a strained smile when Sam put an apologetic paw on her arm. She passed over the drink. "Actually, you first. It'll cheer you up."

Sam drank, and Callie. The warm bite of the cider did chase away the last of the chill. Jules had some, too, and it looked to help. It was good to snuggle close and share something. It helped them reset, and remember how they best got through tough times: together.

And with the adrenaline finally fading, Sam especially looked like she might doze off right here between them, even here in public. It it happened, Callie was going to leave her be. She deserved her rest when she could get it.

Now her own mind wandered. Not to ghost mice or rattling chains - Jules' paw in hers kept her too grounded to worry about that - but to how she could have kept the frightful night from happening at all. She shouldn't have indulged Sam's recklessness as much as she had. She should have listened harder to Jules' concerns, which were more valid than ever. They might all feel the urge to try something new and interesting to break up the restlessness of a changing season, but she was supposed to know that it couldn't come at the expense of their safety.

It was all a bit moot now, though. They were still safe, at least, but she couldn't change what they'd seen. She'd just have to be there for them, the way they were going to be there for her, and hope they'd learned their lesson. If it got really bad, maybe they could take a train to Sahara after work, and find a beach and forget that it was even Harvest for a while.

Of course, forgetting was easier thought of than done.

"We're going to have a doozy of a story for Nick and Judy-" the yawn cut some of it off and Sam had to try again. "The next time we see them."

That was Sam: terrified, but not so terrified that she wouldn't talk all about it given the chance. Callie would have to check with Nick to see when they were supposed to come back. Another nice warm dinner sounded pretty good right about now.

"Next Harvest, maybe we should clear the calendar so we can go with them to see Judy's farm," she said. "We're less likely to get in trouble."

"Sounds nice and warm and safe." Jules surrendered the cider mug to Sam again and settled back against the hay. She was still watching the kits with their trick-or-treat pails. "I'll take that over rigged factories any day."

"Haunted factories," Sam corrected her.

Jules frowned, but it softened in an instant when Sam squeezed her paw and she looked worried instead. "Or haunted factories, yeah."

Callie watched the rabbit wave her tiny paws under her ghost costume. The raccoon chaperone with her clapped paws to her mouth in mock-fright. "Unless they tell stories like that there, too."

"That would be so mean," Sam said. She shivered and hugged them both closer. "Scaring little kits with ghost stories."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](https://falke-scribblings.tumblr.com/)


End file.
